Olivia Pratt-Korbel murder trial: Prosecution tells jury “Thomas Cashman must think that you were all born yesterday”

The man accused of murdering Olivia Pratt-Korbel is trying to “pull the wool” over jurors’ eyes, the prosecuting lawyers in his trial have claimed.

Thomas Cashman, of Grenadier Drive in West Derby, is accused of killing Olivia and wounding her mother after chasing convicted burglar, Joseph Nee into their house on Kingsheath Avenue, and opening fire, last August.

Cashman appeared via videolink at Liverpool Crown Court in December to enter not guilty pleas to the murder of Olivia, the attempted murder of Nee, the wounding with intent of Olivia’s mother, as well as two counts of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Prosecution closing argument

Presenting his closing argument at Manchester Crown Court on Monday afternoon, David McLachlan KC, prosecuting, said it was a “case that shocked not simply a city not too far away from here but also a nation.”

He said: “We invite you to consider whether the strands of evidence put forward by the prosecution are, as Thomas Cashman would have you believe, a series of misunderstood or random, unconnected events, in short simply a multitude of coincidences that don’t point in the direction of his guilt, or are the events with which you are concerned, in fact, as the prosecution contend, a linked series of events providing layer upon layer upon layer of evidence which is capable of being explained though a straight-forward, common-sense consideration of evidence.

“The straight forward conclusion, we submit, is the man in the dock, Thmas Cashman, is not the unluckiest man in the world with all these circumstances conspiring against him. He is not the victim of a woman trying to stitch him up for the murder.”

It is alleged that Cashman fled to the home of a woman he had a fling with, after the shooting, and she claims to have heard him say he had ‘done Joey.’ However, the defendant says she is lying.

Mr MacLachlan continued: “The man in the dock, we submit, is the gunman who shot Olivia and he is not prepared to own it. We say - but you will decide - that Thomas Cashman must think that you were all born yesterday.”

”Fortunately, you were not and every day you have come into this court, you have brought something with you. That commodity you have brought with you every day is common sense. You know better than anyone when someone is trying to pull the wool over your eyes, that’s what the prosecution say Thomas Cashman is trying to do.”

The trial continues.